GBR 10-3 JPN 〜 Winter Olympics Women’s Curling final
Great Britain had a golden finish to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with Eve Muirhead’s women’s curlers crushing Japan 10-3 in Sunday’s final.
Muirhead brought watching British team-mates in the Ice Cube to their feet as she scored a superb four in the seventh end to effectively clinch the title.
Muirhead and her team squeezed into the semi-finals with a record of five wins and four defeats from their nine round-robin matches.
They faced defending Olympic champions Sweden in the last four and won a thriller 12-11 after the match went to an extra end.
In the final they were favourites against a Japan team who had stunned world champions Switzerland in their semi-final, and they were ruthless.
A perfectly executed two in the opening end with the hammer (last-stone advantage) put them in control, and crucially Muirhead pulled off a superb draw to steal a shot in the fifth end and a 4-1 lead after five of the 10 scheduled ends.
That left Japan, who had beaten GB to bronze four years ago, chasing the game, and when skip Satsuki Fujisawa missed a good chance to hit back in the sixth end, the result seemed inevitable.
The decisive four came in the next end and, though the rules dictated Japan could not concede before the eighth, their hopes were all but extinguished.
As Muirhead’s final shot took out a Japanese stone to lie four, the British contingent in the stands – including the men’s silver-medal winning team – jumped to their feet in jubilation, knowing the significance of the play.
Britain’s domination continued with a two in the ninth end which forced Japan to concede defeat one end early.
